Resources

Preparation for External Review

• Hotel reservations at Rodeway Inn, 5 rooms nonsmoking for evenings of Apr 21-23 2013
• Rodeway Inn meeting room evenings of Apr 21-23
• Invite Sen. Deb Fischer to Apr 21 Dinner
• Transportation of team to all locations
• Welcome/Thank You Ideas for External Review Team Members of Quality Assurance Review teams and other agents of AdvancED’s NCA CASI or SACS CASI Accreditation Divisions who provide services to schools/school systems are prohibited from accepting gifts, other than school/school system logo items of minimal value, from schools/school systems.

Developing an Agency Profile

• The agency profile is developed by collecting and examining data to determine the agency’s current reality as it relates to its vision. The profile includes data on
  • students and their performance
  • school and agency effectiveness
  • agency and community contexts for learning
    
    
• ESAs can refer to AdvancED Accreditation for Quality School Systems: A Practitioners’ Guide for more detail on the components of a good profile. The executive summary of the agency profile provides an opportunity for the agency to give an overview of the agency’s vision, goals, demographics, and community and service area characteristics.
  • Definition: A profile of the current reality is a continuously unfolding story captured in descriptive "snapshots" of the learning and the learning community. It includes a description of the agency's current reality--students and their performance, agency effectiveness, and the community contexts for learning. It describes the agency's constituents and their contributions and challenges.
  • Purpose: A profile allows for a comparison of the agency's vision to the current reality so that targeted areas for improvement can be identified. Student learning serves as the focal point for the profile. Through an evaluation of the profile data, constituents create a comprehensive picture of the agency that enhances their understanding of the practices and conditions that influence student learning and agency effectiveness.
  • Benefits to Continuous Improvement: A profile of the current status of the agency is the underpinning of an effective continuous improvement process. It provides baseline information, which will be to identify gaps and target areas for improvement.
  • Development Process: A profile is developed from fair, reliable, and valid information that describes learners and the learning community. Information sources that are diverse enhance the "truthfulness" of a profile.
  • Impact: The profile influences all subsequent improvement efforts since it is the source of data and information used to identify gaps between current performance and desired performance. If the profile presents an accurate portrayal of the current status, improvement efforts are set upon a solid base.
    
    
  • student activities